Methods and Systems for Facilitating Chronic Care of a Patient with a Chronic Medical Condition

ABSTRACT

An exemplary method includes a chronic care solutions provider system 1) maintaining data representative of a chronic care plan for a patient with a chronic medical condition, 2) providing a notification by way of a patient portal for the patient to use a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading, 3) receiving data representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometric device, 4) determining that the biometric reading is outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, 5) generating, in response to the determination that the biometric reading is outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, an actionable task based on the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic care plan, and 6) presenting, by way of the patient portal, an interactive task interface configured to facilitate completion by the patient of the actionable task. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/732,177, filed Nov. 30, 2012. Thecontents of the provisional patent application are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart failure, chronicobstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary artery disease, cause aboutseventy percent of deaths and result in well over a trillion dollars inhealth care spending each year in the United States alone. In additionto the direct costs in health care, chronic medical conditions are asignificant burden to the economy, through limitations in dailyactivities, lost productivity, and employee absenteeism.

Conventional chronic care techniques often involve prescribing a regimenthat a chronic care patient is supposed to follow in between follow-upvisits with a health care practitioner (e.g., a doctor or other chroniccare provider). Unfortunately, many patients fail to follow theseregimens because the health care practitioner is unable to constantlymonitor and encourage them in between the follow-up visits. As a result,their chronic medical conditions worsen over time, thereby increasingthe cost of caring for them (e.g., in the form of frequent emergencyroom visits) and inhibiting their ability to live a healthy andproductive life.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments and are a partof the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examplesand do not limit the scope of the disclosure. Throughout the drawings,identical or similar reference numbers designate identical or similarelements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration in which a chronic caresolutions provider system is communicatively coupled to a customercomputing system according to principles described herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the configurationshown in FIG. 1 according to principles described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of a chronic care solutionsprovider system according to principles described herein.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in which a chronic caremanagement facility provides a patient portal and a practitioner portalaccording to principles described herein.

FIGS. 5-17 illustrate exemplary interfaces according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating chronic care ofa patient with a chronic medical condition according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating chronic care ofa patient with a chronic medical condition according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the chronic caresolutions provider system shown in FIG. 3 according to principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary computing device according toprinciples described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Methods and systems for facilitating chronic care of a patient with achronic medical condition are described herein. For example, as will bedescribed below, a chronic care solutions provider system may 1)maintain data representative of a chronic care plan for a patient with achronic medical condition, 2) provide, in accordance with the chroniccare plan, a notification by way of a patient portal for the patient touse a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated withthe patient, 3) receive data representative of the biometric readingacquired by the biometric device, 4) determine that the biometricreading is outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic careplan, 5) generate, in response to the determination that the biometricreading is outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic careplan, an actionable task based on the biometric reading and inaccordance with the chronic care plan, and 6) present, by way of thepatient portal, an interactive task interface configured to facilitatecompletion by the patient of the actionable task. As will be describedherein, the actionable task may be configured to assist the patient inmanaging the chronic medical condition (e.g., by improving a healthcharacteristic associated with the chronic medical condition as measuredby the biometric reading).

Compared with conventional chronic care techniques, the methods andsystems described herein may facilitate a relatively more efficient,effective, and/or accessible standard of care for people (i.e.,patients) with chronic medical conditions. For example, by generatingactionable tasks based on biometric readings acquired by the patient andthen presenting the actionable tasks in a way that incentivizes andmakes it easy for the patient to complete the actionable tasks, thepatient may be relatively more likely to consistently complete theactionable tasks and thereby manage his or her chronic medicalcondition. Moreover, as will be described below, the methods and systemsdescribed herein may allow a health care practitioner assigned to thepatient to remotely monitor progress made by the patient in completingthe actionable tasks, thereby allowing the patient to interact with thehealth care practitioner without having to make an in-person visit to ahealth care clinic. This, in turn, may facilitate early intervention ifthe biometric readings are outside an acceptable range, therebypreventing costly emergency room visits, enabling the patient to lead ahealthy and productive life, and/or reducing the overall cost of healthcare for everyone.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration 100 in which a chroniccare solutions provider system 102 is communicatively coupled to acustomer computing system 104. As illustrated by the dashed lines inFIG. 1 and as will be described in more detail below, chronic caresolutions provider system 102 may provide a chronic care platform 106upon which a chronic care solution 108 may be built for one or morecustomers associated with customer computing system 104.

Chronic care solutions provider system 102 may be implemented by one ormore appropriately configured computing devices (e.g., one or moreserver devices) and associated with (e.g., owned by, operated by, and/ormanaged by) a chronic care solutions provider. For example, chronic caresolutions provider system 102 may be associated with one or moreentities involved in providing a chronic care solution to a customer. Toillustrate, chronic care solutions provider system 102 may be associatedwith a first entity that provides chronic care platform 106 and a secondentity that provides chronic care solution 108, a single entity thatprovides both chronic care platform 106 and chronic care solution 108,and/or any other entity or combination of entities involved in providingchronic care platform 106 and chronic care solution 108 as may serve aparticular implementation.

Customer computing system 104 may be associated with (e.g., owned by,operated by, and/or managed by) customers of the chronic care solutionsprovider and/or users of the chronic care solutions provided by thechronic care solutions provider. For example, customer computing system104 may be associated with one or more patients with one or more chronicmedical conditions, one or more health care practitioners, one or morechronic care solution administrators, one or more health insurancecompanies, one or more health care practitioner staffing agencies,and/or any other user and/or entity as may serve a particularimplementation.

In some examples, chronic care solution 108 may comprise an abstractionof one or more high-level, customer-visible chronic care services(“customer services”) provided by the chronic care solutions provider aspart of the chronic care solution 108. Such chronic care services mayinclude, but are not limited to, portal services, remote monitoringservices, e-prescribing services, payment services, virtual consultationservices, etc.

Chronic care platform 106 may comprise an abstraction of one or morelower-level services (“platform services”) that support and/or performthe customer services of chronic care solution 108. Platform servicesmay include platform-level services provided by chronic care solutionsprovider system 102 as part of chronic care platform 106 and that maysupport, underlie, and/or perform one or more customer services ofchronic care solution 108 provided on top of chronic care platform. Forexample, platform services may include, without limitation, accessservices, messaging services, biometric device provisioning andfulfillment services, communication services, support services, datatransport services, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation 200 of the configuration100 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, implementation 200 may include a patientcomputing device 202 and a practitioner computing device 204 eachcommunicatively coupled to chronic care solutions provider system 102 byway of a network (e.g., network 206 and network 208). In some examples,patient computing device 202 and practitioner computing device 204 mayimplement customer computing system 104.

As shown, patient computing device 202 may be associated with (i.e.,used by) a patient 210. Patient 210 may include any person with achronic medical condition (i.e., a chronic care patient) and who usespatient computing device 202 to avail himself or herself of the chroniccare services described herein. Exemplary chronic medical conditionsthat patient 210 may have include, but are not limited to, diabetes,heart disease (e.g., heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonarydisease, coronary artery disease, etc.), obesity, and/or any otherlong-term illness, disease, or condition that may require chronic care(i.e., long-term medical care).

Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be associated with(i.e., used by) a health care practitioner 212. As used herein, a healthcare practitioner may include a physician, a physician assistant, anurse, a dietitian, a therapist, and/or any other chronic care giver orprovider.

Patient computing device 202 may be implemented by a mobile device(e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, etc.), apersonal computer, and/or any other suitable computing device that maybe configured to access a patient portal provided by chronic caresolutions provider system 102. For example, patient computing device 202may be implemented by a computing device configured to execute and/orotherwise access an application (e.g., a web application or a mobileapplication) configured to facilitate access by the patient to thechronic care services described herein.

Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be implemented by amobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptopcomputer, etc.), a personal computer, and/or any other suitablecomputing device that may be configured to access a practitioner portalprovided by chronic care solutions provider system 102. For example,practitioner computing device 204 may be implemented by a computingdevice configured to execute and/or otherwise access an application(e.g., a web application or a mobile application) configured tofacilitate access by the practitioner to the chronic care servicesdescribed herein.

It will be recognized that although a single patient computing device202 and a single practitioner computing device 204 are shown in FIG. 2,any number of patient computing devices and practitioner computingdevices may be communicatively coupled to chronic care solutionsprovider system 102 as may serve a particular implementation. Additionalcomputing devices used by other types of patients (e.g., chronic caresolution administrators, etc.) may also be communicatively coupled tochronic care solutions provider system 102.

As shown, patient computing device 202 may communicate with chronic caresolutions provider system 102 by way of a network 206. Likewise,practitioner computing device 204 may communicate with chronic caresolutions provider system 102 by way of a network 208. Networks 206 and208 may each include one or more wireless networks, cellular networks(e.g., 3G, 4G, or long term evolution (“LTE”) networks),carrier-specific networks, broadband networks, closed media networks,cable networks, satellite networks, the Internet, intranets, wide areanetworks, local area networks, public networks, private networks,optical fiber networks, and/or any other networks or combination ofnetworks capable of carrying data and communications signals betweenpatient computing device 202 and chronic care solutions provider system102 and/or between practitioner computing device 204 and chronic caresolutions provider system 102. While networks 206 and 208 are shown tobe separate networks in FIG. 2 (e.g., network 206 may include one ormore telecommunication carrier networks and network 208 may include theInternet), it will be recognized that, in some examples, networks 206and 208 may alternatively be a single network.

Patient computing device 202, practitioner computing device 204, andchronic care solutions provider system 102 may communicate using anycommunication technologies suitable for transporting data, includingknown communication devices, media, and protocols supportive of remoteor local data communications. Examples of such communicationtechnologies include, but are not limited to, data transmission media,communications devices (e.g., network devices such as routers, switches,etc.), Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), Internet Protocol (“IP”),Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(“HTTPS”), Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”), Ethernet, and any othersuitable communications technologies, devices, media, and protocols,including any of those disclosed herein.

As further illustrated in FIG. 2, patient 210 may utilize one or morebiometric devices 214 (e.g., biometric devices 214-1 through 214-3) toacquire biometric readings associated with patient 210. As used herein,a “biometric reading” refers to any measurement of one or morebiometrics (i.e., one or more health characteristics) of a patient.

Biometric devices 214 may include any suitable device configured tomeasure one or more biometrics of patient 210. Exemplary biometricdevices 214 that may be used in accordance with the methods and systemsdescribed herein include, but are not limited to, a glucometerconfigured to measure blood glucose level of patient 210, a bloodpressure monitor configured to measure a blood pressure of patient 210,a weight scale configured to measure a weight of patient 210, and apulse oximeter configured to measure the level of oxygen saturation inthe patient's blood. Some types of biometric devices 214 (e.g., a pulseoximeter) may be configured to continuously monitor a particularbiometric of patient 210. Other types of biometric devices 214 (e.g., aweight scale) may be configured to measure a particular biometric ofpatient 210 only in response to a specific action performed by patient210 (e.g., when patient 210 steps on the weight scale).

In some examples, as will be described below, it may be desirable forchronic care solutions provider system 102 to process datarepresentative of the biometric readings acquired by biometric devices214. To this end, data representative of the biometric readings may becommunicated to chronic care solutions provider system 102 in anysuitable manner depending on the communication capabilities of thevarious biometric devices 214 that the patient may use.

For example, biometric device 214-1 does not have any communicationcapabilities. Hence, patient 210 may utilize biometric device 214-1 toacquire a biometric reading and then manually input data representativeof the biometric reading into patient computing device 202, which inturn may provide the data representative of the biometric reading tochronic care solutions provider system 102 by way of network 206.

As another example, biometric device 214-2 may be configured tocommunicate directly with patient computing device 202. For example,biometric device 214-2 and patient computing device 202 may communicateby way of a wireless communication link (e.g., a local area networkconnection, Bluetooth, infrared, etc.), a wired communication link,and/or any other communication technology as may serve a particularimplementation. Hence, in this example, once patient 210 utilizesbiometric device 214-2 to acquire a biometric reading, biometric device214-2 may transmit data representative of the biometric reading topatient computing device 202, which in turn may provide the datarepresentative of the biometric reading to chronic care solutionsprovider system 102 by way of network 206.

As yet another example, biometric device 214-3 may include one or morecommunication components (e.g., a wireless network card, a cellularmodem, and/or any other type of communication component) configured tofacilitate direct communication with chronic care solutions providersystem 102 and/or any other system by way of network 206 (e.g., by wayof a Wi-Fi or cellular link). In this manner, biometric device 214-3 maytransmit data representative of a biometric reading directly to chroniccare solutions provider system 102 by way of network 206. In somealternative examples, biometric device 214-3 may be managed by a thirdparty entity not directly associated with chronic care solutionsprovider system 102. In these examples, biometric device 214-3 maytransmit data representative of the biometric reading to a server orother type of system associated with the third party entity by way ofnetwork 206. The third party entity may then forward the datarepresentative of the biometric reading to chronic care solutionsprovider system 102.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of chronic care solutionsprovider system 102. As mentioned, chronic care solutions providersystem 102 may provide a chronic care platform and one or more chroniccare solutions by way of the chronic care platform. To this end, chroniccare solutions provider system 102 may include a chronic care managementfacility 302 and a storage facility 304 selectively and communicativelycoupled to one another. It will be recognized that although facilities302 and 304 are shown to be separate facilities in FIG. 3, any offacilities 302-306 may be combined into fewer facilities, such as into asingle facility, or divided into more facilities as may serve aparticular implementation.

Storage facility 304 may be configured to maintain chronic care plandata 306 representative of one or more chronic care plans associatedwith one or more patients, actionable task data 308 representative ofone or more actionable tasks generated or otherwise used by chronic caremanagement facility 302, and/or any other data generated and/or utilizedby chronic care management facility 302 as may serve a particularimplementation.

As used herein, a “chronic care plan” represented by chronic care plandata 306 refers to a particular set of guidelines, action items,metrics, and/or regimen that a chronic care patient may follow in orderto manage, treat, or otherwise care for a chronic medical condition. Forexample, a chronic care plan may specify an acceptable range for aparticular type of biometric reading associated with a patient, one ormore actionable tasks that the patient should perform in order to managethe chronic medical condition, one or more incentives (e.g., rewardpoints) that may be offered to the patient for completing the one ormore actionable tasks, a schedule for follow-up visits with a healthcare practitioner, and/or any other attribute associated with the careof the patient. An “actionable task” represented by actionable task data308 refers to any task or action item that may be performed by a patientand/or a health care practitioner associated with the patient and thatmay be configured to assist the patient in managing the chronic medicalcondition (e.g., by assisting the patient in improving a healthcharacteristic associated with the chronic medical condition as measuredby a biometric reading acquired by a biometric device).

Chronic care management facility 302 may be configured to perform one ormore chronic care management operations. For example, chronic caremanagement facility 302 may provide various types of portals that may beaccessed by various types of users participating in or otherwiseassociated with a chronic care solution provided by chronic caresolutions provider system 102.

To illustrate, FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in which chroniccare management facility 302 provides a patient portal 402 configured tobe accessed by patient 210 by way of patient computing device 202 and apractitioner portal 404 configured to be accessed by health carepractitioner 212 by way of practitioner computing device 206. Patientportal 402 and practitioner portal 404 may be provided and accessed inany suitable manner. As will be described in more detail below, varioustypes of interfaces may be presented to patient 210 and/or health carepractitioner 212 by way of patient portal 402 and practitioner portal404, respectively. It will be recognized that chronic care managementfacility 302 may provide additional or alternative types of portals asmay serve a particular implementation. For example, chronic caremanagement facility 302 may provide an administrator portal configuredto be accessed by a chronic care solution administrator.

Returning to FIG. 3, chronic care management facility 302 may be furtherconfigured to perform one or more operations with respect to a chroniccare plan associated with the patient. For example, as will be describedin more detail below, chronic care management facility 302 may, inaccordance with the chronic care plan, provide one or morenotifications, process biometric readings, generate actionable tasks,and/or present various types of content by way of a patient portaland/or a practitioner portal for experiencing by the patient and/or ahealth care practitioner assigned to the patient.

In some examples, a chronic care plan may include a general plan thatmay be used by a plurality of patients that have the same chronicmedical condition. Alternatively, a chronic care plan may bepersonalized to a particular patient. For example, chronic caremanagement facility 302 may receive (e.g., by way of a practitionerportal) input provided by a health care practitioner representative ofone or more attributes of a chronic care plan personalized to aparticular patient. In response, chronic care management facility 302may store data representative of the personalized chronic care planwithin storage facility 304 for use by the particular patient.

In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may provide, inaccordance with a chronic care plan associated with a patient, anotification by way of a patient portal for the patient to use abiometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated with thepatient. For example, chronic care management facility 302 may providean alert to the patient for the patient to check her blood glucose levelwith a glucometer, her blood pressure level with a blood pressuremonitor, her weight with a weight scale, her oxygen saturation levelwith a pulse oximeter, and/or any other biometric reading with any othertype of biometric device may serve a particular implementation.Exemplary notifications such as these will be described in more detailbelow.

In response to the notification, the patient may use a biometric deviceto acquire a biometric reading. Chronic care management facility 302 mayreceive data representative of the acquired biometric reading in anysuitable manner. For example, as described above, the biometric devicemay automatically transmit the data representative of the biometricreading to chronic care management facility 302 by way of cellularconnection between the biometric device and a network (e.g., network206) interconnecting the biometric device and chronic care solutionsprovider system 102.

Alternatively, chronic care management facility 302 may receive the datarepresentative of the biometric reading from a computing device (e.g.,patient computing device 202) associated with the patient. For example,the biometric device may automatically transmit the data representativeof the biometric reading to the computing device, as described above.The computing device may then forward the data representative of thebiometric reading to chronic care management facility 302 (e.g., by wayof network 206). Alternatively, the patient may manually input the datarepresentative of the biometric reading into the computing device, whichmay then forward the data representative of the biometric reading tochronic care management facility 302.

In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may present theacquired biometric reading within the patient portal and/or within thepractitioner portal for experiencing by the patient and/or the healthcare practitioner. In this manner, the patient and/or health carepractitioner may immediately be aware of the biometric reading and takeany action deemed necessary in response to the biometric reading.

For example, a health care practitioner may be automatically notified(e.g., by way of an alert presented within a practitioner portal, a textmessage, etc.) by chronic care management facility 302 that thebiometric reading is outside an acceptable range as specified in thechronic care plan associated with the patient. In response, the healthcare practitioner may contact (e.g., call, initiate a virtualconsultation, etc.) the patient to discuss the biometric reading and/orone or more actions that should be taken by the patient to remedy theout of range biometric reading.

In some examples, if the biometric reading is outside an acceptablerange as specified in the chronic care plan, chronic care managementfacility 302 may automatically initiate a consultation between thepatient and the health care practitioner. In some examples, theconsultation may include a virtual consultation by way of the patientportal and the practitioner portal. Exemplary virtual consultations thatmay be provided by chronic care management facility 302 are described inmore detail in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filedthe same day as the present application, and entitled “Methods andSystems for Facilitating a Virtual Consultation Between a User and aHealth Care Practitioner,” the contents of which are incorporated hereinby reference in their entirety.

Additionally or alternatively, the health care practitioner may specifyone or more actionable tasks that may be performed by the patient inorder to improve a health characteristic associated with the medicalcondition as measured by the biometric reading. In some examples,chronic care management facility 302 may receive input representative ofthe one or more actionable tasks provided by the health carepractitioner by way of the practitioner portal, present a notificationof the one or more actionable tasks to the patient by way of the patientportal, and/or update the chronic care plan associated with the patientin accordance with the newly specified one or more actionable tasks.Examples of this will be described in more detail below.

In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may generate anactionable task based on the biometric reading and in accordance withthe chronic care plan. For example, chronic care management facility 302may determine that the biometric reading is outside an acceptable rangespecified in the chronic care plan. In response, chronic care managementfacility 302 may automatically generate an actionable task configured toassist the patient in improving a health characteristic associated withthe chronic medical condition as measured by the biometric reading. Inthis manner, actionable tasks may be dynamically generated insubstantially real-time as the patient takes biometric readings, whichmay allow the patient to more quickly and effectively respond to thebiometric reading.

Chronic care management facility 302 may automatically generate anactionable task in any suitable manner. For example, a library ofactionable tasks may be maintained by storage facility 304. Chronic caremanagement facility 302 may use the biometric reading to automaticallyselect an appropriate actionable task from the library of actionabletasks. By so doing, the need for a health care practitioner topersonally specify the actionable task may be avoided, thereby savingcosts associated with the services of the health care practitioner andallowing the patient to more readily respond to an unfavorable biometricreading.

Additionally or alternatively, chronic care management facility 302 maygenerate an actionable task in response to input provided by a healthcare practitioner. For example, as described above, chronic caremanagement facility 302 may present the biometric reading to a healthcare practitioner assigned to the patient. Chronic care managementfacility 302 may then receive input provided by the health carepractitioner in response to the biometric reading and generate theactionable task based on the input provided by the health carepractitioner.

In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may generate anactionable task based on a plurality of biometric readings. For example,a patient may use a particular biometric device to acquire a pluralityof biometric readings over the course of a particular time period (e.g.,a day, a week, etc.). Chronic care management facility 302 may generatean actionable task based on these biometric readings as a whole. Forexample, the biometric readings may be indicative of a biometric trendthat may not be readily apparent based on a single biometric reading.Hence, chronic care management facility 302 may generate an actionabletask that is configured to reverse or otherwise address the biometrictrend identified using the plurality of biometric readings.

In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may generate anactionable task based on biometric readings generated by differentbiometric devices. For example, chronic care management facility 302 mayprovide a first notification to the patient by way of the patient portalfor the patient to weigh herself using a weight scale. Chronic caremanagement facility 302 may also provide a second notification to thepatient by way of the patient portal for the patient to measure herblood glucose level with a glucometer. Chronic care management facility302 may then generate an actionable task based on the patient's weightand blood glucose level.

Chronic care management facility 302 may be further configured topresent an interactive task interface by way of the patient portal. Theinteractive task interface may be configured to facilitate completion bythe patient of one or more actionable tasks generated by chronic caremanagement facility 302. For example, the interactive task interface mayinclude a notification of an actionable task generated in response to abiometric reading and one or more instructions (e.g., step-by-stepinstructions) regarding how to complete the actionable task. As will bedescribed in more detail below, chronic care management facility 302 mayalso present other content (e.g., a graphical object representative ofprogress made by the patient towards one or more goals associated withthe chronic care plan and at least one recommendation for managing thechronic medical condition) within the interactive task interface.

In some scenarios, chronic care management facility 302 may generatemultiple actionable tasks based on the biometric reading in accordancewith the chronic care plan. In these scenarios, chronic care managementfacility 302 may graphically portray the actionable tasks within theinteractive task interface in a manner that allows the patient toreadily ascertain what the actionable tasks are and in a manner thatencourages the patient to interact with and complete the actionabletasks.

For example, chronic care management facility 302 may concurrentlypresent, within the interactive task interface, a plurality of graphicaltask cards each representative of a distinct actionable task included inthe plurality of actionable tasks. The graphical task cards may bepresented in any suitable manner. For example, as will be illustratedbelow, the graphical task cards may be presented in a staggered stackarrangement such that at least a portion of each of the graphical taskcards is visible within the patient portal.

Chronic care management facility 302 may be further configured to detecta completion by the patient of an actionable task and, in response,reward the patient with one or more reward points. In this manner, thepatient may be incentivized to work on and complete actionable tasks. Insome examples, chronic care patient management facility 302 may present,within the patient portal, an option to redeem the one or more rewardpoints for one or more prizes (e.g., gift cards, massages, items ofclothing, and/or any other suitable item as may serve a particularimplementation).

Various examples of the methods and systems described herein will now beprovided. It will be recognized that the examples provided herein aremerely illustrative of the many different implementations that may berealized in accordance with the methods and systems described herein.For example, additional or alternative interfaces to those describedbelow may be presented in accordance with the methods and systemsdescribed herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary patient portal 500 that may be providedby chronic care management facility 302 for presentation to a patient(e.g., by way of patient computing device 202). Patient portal 500 maybe presented in any suitable manner. For example, patient portal 500 maybe presented in the context of a standalone application (e.g., a mobileapplication), a webpage, and/or in any other manner as may serve aparticular implementation. As will be described herein, variousinterfaces may be presented within patient portal 500 to facilitatemanagement of a chronic medical condition associated with a patient.

As shown, a login interface 502 may be initially presented withinpatient portal 500. A patient may utilize login interface 502 to accessone or more of the chronic care services described herein. For example,as shown, the patient may enter a login ID and password and select a“sign in” option 504. It will be recognized that a patient mayalternatively access one or more of the chronic care services describedherein in any other manner. For example, a user of a mobile device maysimply initiate a mobile application executed by the mobile device toaccess the chronic care services described herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary notification interface 602 that may bepresented within patient portal 500 after the patient has logged inusing login interface 502. As shown, chronic care management facility302 may provide, in accordance with a chronic care plan associated withthe patient, a notification 604 for presentation within notificationinterface 602 for the patient to use a biometric device to acquire abiometric reading associated with the patient. In the particular exampleof FIG. 6, notification 604 is for the patient to weigh herself using aweight scale. It will be recognized that additional or alternative typesof notifications may be provided by way of patient portal 500 as mayserve a particular implementation.

As shown, the patient may select a “cancel” option 606 to ignorenotification 604. Alternatively, the patient may select a “start” option608 to access an interface configured to facilitate acquisition of thebiometric reading.

To illustrate, FIG. 7 shows an exemplary instructions interface 702 thatmay be presented within patient portal 500 in response to the patientselecting the “start” option 608 shown in FIG. 6. As shown, instructions704 about how to acquire the biometric reading may be provided withininstructions interface 702. In this particular example, instructions 704detail a number of steps that may be taken by the patient in order toweigh herself using a weight scale. As shown, one or more options 706(e.g., options 706-1 through 706-4) may be selected by the patient inorder to access additional content (e.g., video content) that describein more detail how to perform each of the steps included in instructions704. For example, in response to the patient selecting option 706-1,chronic care management facility 302 may present, within patient portal500, a video illustrating how to take one's shoes off. Once the patientis aware of how to use the biometric device to acquire the biometricreading, she may select option 708 to proceed with acquiring thebiometric reading.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary results interface 802 that may bepresented within patient portal 500 in response to the patient using thebiometric device to acquire the biometric reading. As shown, anotification 804 may be presented within results interface 802 thatincludes information representative of the biometric reading. In thisparticular example, notification 804 shows that the weight scaleacquired a biometric reading of 167.1 pounds (“lbs”) at 11:35 μm. Inthis manner, the patient may immediately know the results of thebiometric reading.

In some examples, the patient may select a “view history” option 806 toview a log of previously acquired weight measurements. The patient mayalso select a “send now” option 808 to send data representative of thebiometric reading from patient computing device 202 to chronic caresolutions provider system 102. Alternatively, as described above,chronic care solutions provider system 102 may receive the datarepresentative of the biometric reading directly from the biometricdevice (i.e., the weight scale). In this embodiment, the “send now”option 808 may be omitted.

In instances in which the biometric device is not configured tocommunicate with either patient computing device 202 or chronic caresolutions provider system 102, an interface may be presented withinpatient portal 500 requesting the patient to manually enter datarepresentative of the biometric reading. The patient may then directpatient computing device 202 transmit the data representative of thebiometric reading in any suitable manner.

In some examples (e.g., in cases where the biometric reading is outsidean acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan), chronic caremanagement facility 302 may notify a health care practitioner assignedto the patient of the biometric reading. For example, FIG. 9 illustratesan exemplary practitioner portal 900 that may be accessed by a healthcare practitioner assigned to the patient described in connection withFIGS. 5-8. As shown, a notification 902 (i.e., a graphical objectrepresentative of an alert) may be presented within practitioner portal900 in response to chronic care management facility 302 determining thatthe weight of the patient has deviated outside an acceptable range asspecified in the patient's chronic care plan.

In some examples, notification 902 may include one or more options thatthe health care practitioner may select in order to address and/orignore the biometric reading. For example, the health care practitionermay select an “ignore” option 904 to ignore the notification.

Alternatively, the health care practitioner may select an “initiateconsultation” option 906 to initiate a consultation with the patient. Asdescribed above, the consultation may include a virtual consultation byway of patient portal 500 and practitioner portal 900 (e.g., an onlinevideo conference, an online audio conference, an online chat session,and or any other form of real-time communication as may serve aparticular implementation). Alternatively, the consultation may includea phone call and/or any other type of communication as may serve aparticular implementation.

As shown, the health care practitioner may alternatively select a“create actionable task” option 908 to create one or more actionabletasks based on the biometric reading. To illustrate, FIG. 10 shows anexemplary task manager interface 1002 that may be presented withinpractitioner portal 900 in response to the health care practitionerselecting option 908.

As shown, task manager interface 1002 may provide one or more inputfields into which the health care practitioner may enter datarepresentative of one or more actionable tasks and or other types ofdata associated with the actionable tasks. For example, task managerinterface 1002 may include a “task” field column 1004 into which thehealth care practitioner may enter text descriptive of an actionabletask, an “order” field column 1006 into which the health carepractitioner may enter a preferred order of completion for variousactionable tasks, and a “reward points” field column 1008 into which thehealth care practitioner may enter a number of reward points that may beawarded to the patient upon completion of the various tasks. Toillustrate, FIG. 10 shows that the health care practitioner has createdfour actionable tasks (e.g., “tell us how much you exercised today,”“take medicine,” “read article,” and “complete questionnaire”) andassigned each of the four actionable tasks a particular order number anda particular amount of reward points to the awarded upon completion ofthe tasks.

Once the health care practitioner has created a desired number ofactionable tasks, he or she may select a “submit” option 1010. Inresponse, chronic care management facility 302 may generate theactionable tasks based on the input provided by the health carepractitioner.

Alternatively, as described above, chronic care management facility 302may automatically generate one or more actionable tasks based on thebiometric reading. For example, in response to the biometric readingthat the patient's weight is outside the acceptable range specified inthe patient's chronic care plan, chronic care management facility 302may automatically select one or more actionable tasks from a library ofactionable tasks maintained by storage facility 304.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary interactive task interface 1102 thatmay be presented within patient portal 500 and that may be configured tofacilitate completion by the patient of one or more actionable tasksgenerated in response to an acquisition of the biometric readingassociated with the patient.

As shown, a plurality of graphical task cards 1104 (e.g., graphical taskcards 1104-1 through 1104-4) each representative of a distinctactionable task included in a plurality of actionable tasks generated inresponse to the acquisition of the biometric reading may be concurrentlypresented within interactive task interface 1102. It will be recognizedthat chronic care management facility 302 may graphically portray theactionable tasks within interactive task interface 1102 in any othersuitable manner. For example, chronic care management facility 302 mayalternatively graphically portray the actionable tasks as a list ofselectable links each configured to facilitate access to additionaldetails about an associated actionable task, a series of non-overlappinggraphical objects, and/or in any other manner as may serve a particularimplementation. Interactive task interface 1102 and graphical task cardsare described in more detail in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. ______, filed the same day as the present application, and entitled“Methods and Systems for Facilitating Access by a Patient to ActionableTasks Associated with a Chronic Care Plan,” the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

As shown, graphical task cards 1104 are presented in a staggered stackarrangement such that at least a portion of each of the graphical taskcards 1104 is visible within patient portal 500 (i.e., withininteractive task interface 1102). In some examples, graphical task cards1104 may be ordered within the staggered stack arrangement in accordancewith an order in which the actionable tasks represented by graphicaltask cards 1104 are to be completed by the patient. For example, in theexample of FIG. 11, the “exercise report” actionable task represented bygraphical task card 1104-1 is to be completed first by the patient,followed by the “blood pressure” actionable task, the “completequestionnaire” actionable task, and the “read article” actionable task,represented by graphical task cards 1104-2 through 1104-4, respectively.

In some examples, the patient may interact with graphical task cards1104 in order to view or otherwise access content presented within eachof the graphical task cards 1104. For example, the patient may use oneor more touch gestures to shuffle through the graphical task cards 1104.To illustrate, chronic care management facility 302 may detect a touchgesture performed by the patient with respect to a touch screen withinwhich patient portal 500 is displayed. The touch gesture may include anysuitable touch gesture, such as a swipe gesture by an object (e.g., afinger, stylus, or other object) in any direction while the object is incontact with the touch screen, a tap gesture by the object, and/or anyother suitable touch gesture as may serve a particular implementation.In response to the touch gesture, chronic care management facility 302may shuffle the graphical task cards 1104 within the staggered stackarrangement.

Chronic care management facility 302 may shuffle graphical task cards1104 in any suitable manner. For example, chronic care managementfacility 302 may shuffle the graphical task cards 1104 by graphicallybringing a graphical task card (e.g., graphical task card 1104-2)located beneath a top of the staggered stack arrangement prior to thetouch gesture being performed to being located at the top of thestaggered stack arrangement. To illustrate, FIG. 12 shows interactivetask interface 1102 after graphical task cards 1104 have been shuffledin response to a touch gesture performed by the patient. As shown,graphical task card 1104-2 has been brought to the top of the staggeredstack arrangement and graphical task card 1104-1 has been placed at thebottom of the staggered stack arrangement.

In some examples, each graphical task card 1104 is interactive andconfigured to facilitate completion by the patient of a correspondingactionable task. For example, the patient may select graphical task card1104-1 (e.g., by tapping graphical task card 1104-1) to access contentassociated with and/or complete the actionable task represented bygraphical task card 1104-1. In response, chronic care managementfacility 302 may enlarge the selected graphical task card 1104-1 withinpatient portal 500. FIG. 13 shows patient portal 500 after graphicaltask card 1102-1 has been enlarged. As shown, the enlarging may includemaximizing a size of graphical task card 1102-1 within patient portal500 such that the remaining number of graphical task cards (i.e.,graphical task cards 1104-2 through 1104-4) are not visible withinpatient portal 500.

The patient may then select a “begin” option 1302 included withingraphical task card 1104-1 in order to complete the actionable taskrepresented by graphical task card 1104-1. It will be recognized thatoption 1302 may be selected at any time (e.g., before graphical taskcard 1104-1 has been enlarged).

FIG. 14 shows patient portal 500 after option 1302 has been selected bythe patient. As shown, a plurality of input fields 1402 (i.e., inputfields 1402-1 through 1402-4) may be presented within patient portal 500and used to complete the actionable task specified by graphical taskcard 1104-1. It will be recognized that any other content configured toassist the patient in completing the actionable task may be presentedwithin patient portal 500 as may serve a particular implementation.

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary interface 1502 that may be presentedwithin patient portal 500 in response to completion by the patient of anactionable task. As shown, interface 1502 may include a message 1504congratulating the patient for completing the actionable task. Interface1502 may include any other content as may serve a particularimplementation.

FIG. 16 illustrates another exemplary patient portal 1600 that may bepresented to the patient. As shown, patient portal 1600 may include avariety of types of content related to a chronic care plan associatedwith the patient. For example, chronic care management facility 302 mayconcurrently present, within patient portal 1600, a plurality ofgraphical objects 1602 (e.g., graphical task cards) each representativeof a distinct actionable task included in a plurality of actionabletasks configured to assist the patient in managing the chronic medicalcondition, a graphical object 1604 representative of progress made bythe patient towards one or more goals associated with the chronic careplan, and at least one recommendation 1606 for managing the chronicmedical condition. Patient portal 1600 may further include information1608 associated with (e.g., descriptive of) one or more chronic careplans associated with the patient, social network content 1610associated with the patient (e.g., social network posts by otherpatients with the same chronic medical condition as the patient, and oneor more advertisements (e.g., advertisements 1612 and 1614) associatedwith (e.g., selected in accordance with) the chronic medical conditionand one or more biometric readings acquired by the patient.

Each of these types of content may be dynamically updated as the patienttakes various biometric readings, completes various actionable tasks,and/or in response to any other factor as may serve a particularimplementation. For example, advertisements 1612 and 1614 may bedynamically changed as the patient improves in caring for his or herchronic medical condition (as evidenced by a trend of completedactionable tasks). To illustrate, an advertisement 1612 for a smokingcessation program may be initially presented to the patient by way ofpatient portal 1600 when the patient first starts accessing the chroniccare services described herein. As the patient completes actionabletasks configured to help the patient stop smoking, advertisement 1612may be updated to include an advertisement for exercise equipment.

As shown, patient portal 1600 may also include rewards content 1616associated with a rewards program in which the patient is enrolled. Asdescribed above, a patient may receive reward points for completing anactionable task and/or for any other reason. In this manner, the patientmay be incentivized to access the chronic care services described herein(e.g., by working on and completing actionable tasks). Patient portal1600 may also include an option 1618 that may be selected to redeem oneor more reward points for one or more prizes (e.g., gift cards,massages, items of clothing, and/or any other suitable item as may servea particular implementation).

In some examples, a chronic care plan may be personalized to a patient.For example, a health care practitioner may define one or moreacceptable ranges associated with a biometric reading for inclusion inthe chronic care plan. To illustrate, FIG. 17 shows an exemplarybiometric reading management interface 1702 that may be presented withinpractitioner portal 900 and that may be used by a health carepractitioner to provide input representative of one or more acceptableranges associated with a biometric reading for inclusion in the chroniccare plan. As shown, the practitioner has specified a number of possibleranges 1704 (e.g., ranges 1704-1 through 1704-6) for a blood pressurereading taken by the patient. As shown, a “low” range 1704-1 is between60 and 90, a “low normal” range 1704-2 is between 91 and 99, a “normal”range 1704-3 is between 100 and 120, an “above” range 1704-4 is between121 and 139, a “high” range 1704-5 is between 140 and 170, and a“critical” range 1704-6 is between 171 and 999.

In some examples, one or more of the ranges 1704 defined in biometricreading management interface 1702 may be designated as being“acceptable.” For example, in the example of FIG. 17, ranges 1704-2through 1704-4 are designated as being acceptable (i.e., an alert willnot be sent to the health care practitioner and a warning message willnot be presented to the patient if a biometric reading falls within anyof these ranges). However, if the biometric reading falls within ranges1704-1, 1704-5, or 1704-6, biometric reading management interface 1702shows that an alert will be sent to the health care practitioner and awarning message (which, as shown in FIG. 17, may be specified by thehealth care practitioner) will be presented to the patient by way of thepatient portal.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary method 1800 of facilitating chroniccare of a patient with a chronic medical condition. While FIG. 18illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment, otherembodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the stepsshown in FIG. 18. One or more of the steps shown in FIG. 18 may beperformed by chronic care solutions provider system 102 and/or anyimplementation thereof.

In step 1802, a chronic care solutions provider system maintains datarepresentative of a chronic care plan for a patient with a chronicmedical condition. Step 1802 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein.

In step 1804, the chronic care solutions provider system provides, inaccordance with the chronic care plan, a notification by way of apatient portal for the patient to use a biometric device to acquire abiometric reading associated with the patient. Step 1804 may beperformed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 1806, the chronic care solutions provider system receives datarepresentative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice. Step 1806 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 1808, the chronic care solutions provider system determines thatthe biometric reading is outside an acceptable range specified in thechronic care plan. Step 1808 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein.

In step 1810, the chronic care solutions provider system generates, inresponse to the determination made in step 1808, an actionable taskbased on the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic careplan. As described above, the actionable task is configured to assistthe patient in improving a health characteristic associated with thechronic medical condition as measured by the biometric reading. Step1810 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 1812, the chronic care solutions provider system presents aninteractive task interface by way of the patient portal, the interactivetask interface configured to facilitate completion by the patient of theactionable task. Step 1812 may be performed in any of the ways describedherein.

FIG. 19 illustrates another exemplary method 1900 of facilitatingchronic care of a patient with a chronic medical condition. While FIG.19 illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment, otherembodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the stepsshown in FIG. 19. One or more of the steps shown in FIG. 19 may beperformed by chronic care solutions provider system 102 and/or anyimplementation thereof.

In step 1902, a chronic care solutions provider system provides apractitioner portal accessible by a health care practitioner assigned toa patient with a chronic medical condition. Step 1902 may be performedin any of the ways described herein.

In step 1904, the chronic care solutions provider system receives, byway of the practitioner portal, input provided by the health carepractitioner and representative of a chronic care plan personalized tothe patient. Step 1904 may be performed in any of the ways describedherein.

In step 1906, the chronic care solutions provider system provides, inaccordance with the chronic care plan, a notification by way of apatient portal accessible by the patient for the patient to use abiometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated with thepatient. Step 1906 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 1908, the chronic care solutions provider system receives datarepresentative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice. Step 1908 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 1910, the chronic care solutions provider system presents,within the practitioner portal, the biometric reading acquired by thebiometric device. Step 1910 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein.

In step 1912, the chronic care solutions provider system receives, byway of the practitioner portal, input provided by the health carepractitioner and representative of an actionable task based on thebiometric reading. Step 1912 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed herein.

In step 1914, the chronic care solutions provider system presents anotification of the actionable task to the patient by way of the patientportal. Step 1914 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary implementation 2000 of chronic caresolutions provider system 102. In particular, implementation 2000 showsvarious services (i.e., platform services and/or customer services) thatmay be provided by chronic care solutions provider system 102. Forexample, as shown, chronic care solutions provider system 102 mayprovide communication services 2002, access services 2004, orchestrationand message brokering services 2006, data and transport services 2008,and reporting services 2010. Additional or alternative platform servicesmay be provided as may serve a particular implementation. Together, thevarious platform services illustrated in FIG. 20 provide a chronic careplatform (e.g., chronic care platform 106) upon which one or morechronic care solutions may be built.

Communication services 2002 may facilitate communication by chronic caresolutions provider system 102 with various external devices and/orsystems. For example, communication services 2002 may provide acommunication services layer by which chronic care solutions providersystem 102 may communicate with one or more patient computing devices(e.g., patient computing device 202) and one or more practitionercomputing devices (e.g., practitioner computing device 204).

Communication services 2002 may additionally or alternatively facilitatecommunication by chronic care solutions provider system 102 withexternal systems 2012. In some examples, external systems 2012 may beassociated with (e.g., managed by) one or more entities not associatedwith chronic care solutions provider system 102. As shown, such externalsystems 2012 may include an electronic medical record (“EMR”) system,one or more legacy systems, and one or more biometric devicemanufacturer systems configured to provide, maintain, or otherwisemanage biometric devices used in connection with the methods and systemsdescribed herein.

Access services 2004 may be configured to facilitate access by patients,health care practitioners, administrators, and/or other types of usersto the chronic care solutions provided by chronic care solutionsprovider system 102. For example, access services 2004 may provideparticipation and authorization services 2014, application services2016, portal services 2018, error handling and logging services 2020,and support services 2022.

Participation and authorization services 2014 may include accessmanagement services configured to facilitate secure collaboration withexternal systems (e.g., external systems 2012) with regulatory mandatesand enable comprehensive security for applications, web services, anddata. Participation and authorization services 2014 may also includeauthentication services configured to validate that a particular patientis allowed to access one or more chronic care services (e.g., byverifying login IDs and passwords). Participation and authorizationservices 2014 may also include registration services configured toprovide a registration process that may be used by a patient and/orhealth care practitioner to register for chronic care services.

Application services 2016 may include scheduling services configured tofacilitate scheduling by health care practitioners, diagnosis andassessment services configured to facilitate remote monitoring by healthcare practitioners of patients, payment services configured to allowpatients to securely submit payments online, and virtual consultationservices configured to facilitate virtual consultations between patientsand health care practitioners.

Portal services 2018 may include administration services configured toallow an administrator to manage the various portals provided by chroniccare solutions provider system 102, e-prescribing services configured toallow a health care practitioner to provide a patient with onlineprescriptions, patient portal services configured to facilitatepresentation of a patient portal to a patient, and practitioner portalservices configured to facilitate presentation of a practitioner portalto a health care practitioner.

Error handling and logging services 2020 may include one or moreservices configured to handle and/or log faults that may occur withinany of the other services provided by chronic care solutions providersystem 102. Error handling and logging services 2020 may be furtherconfigured to provide one or more options for auditing the faults.

Support services 2022 may be configured to provide support (e.g.,customer support) for the various services provided by chronic caresolutions provider system 102.

Orchestration and message brokering services 2006 may be configured toprovide one or more workflow management services. Orchestration andmessage brokering services 2006 may be further configured to providemessage routing and brokering services. For example, the recipients ofpatient data (i.e., external systems 2012) may require data in aspecific health care standard format. This service ensures appropriatemessage transformation, message validation and routing for each of the2012 external systems. Orchestration and message brokering services 2006may be further configured to provide message parser services.

Data and transport services 2008 may be configured to provide a securedatabase and data warehouse for runtime as well as complex analytics andreporting services. In some examples, the underlying database forstoring data may include a relational data (e.g. MS SQL, Oracle, etc.)warehouse.

Reporting services 2010 may be configured to facilitate creation andgeneration of various reports associated with the chronic care servicesprovided by chronic care solutions provider system 102. For example,reporting services 2010 process data acquired by chronic care solutionsprovider system 102 and generate and present one or more reports basedon the data.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the processes described hereinmay be implemented at least in part as instructions embodied in anon-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by one or morecomputing devices. In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor)receives instructions, from a non-transitory computer-readable medium,(e.g., a memory, etc.), and executes those instructions, therebyperforming one or more processes, including one or more of the processesdescribed herein. Such instructions may be stored and/or transmittedusing any of a variety of known computer-readable media.

A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readablemedium) includes any non-transitory medium that participates inproviding data (e.g., instructions) that may be read by a computer(e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may take many forms,including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, and/or volatilemedia. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magneticdisks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, forexample, dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), which typicallyconstitutes a main memory. Common forms of computer-readable mediainclude, for example, a disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any othermagnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, a RAM, a PROM,an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or anyother tangible medium from which a computer can read.

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary computing device 2100 that may beconfigured to perform one or more of the processes described herein. Asshown in FIG. 21, computing device 2100 may include a communicationinterface 2102, a processor 2104, a storage device 2106, and aninput/output (“I/O”) module 2108 communicatively connected via acommunication infrastructure 2110. While an exemplary computing device2100 is shown in FIG. 21, the components illustrated in FIG. 21 are notintended to be limiting. Additional or alternative components may beused in other embodiments. Components of computing device 2100 shown inFIG. 21 will now be described in additional detail.

Communication interface 2102 may be configured to communicate with oneor more computing devices. Examples of communication interface 2102include, without limitation, a wired network interface (such as anetwork interface card), a wireless network interface (such as awireless network interface card), a modem, an audio/video connection,and any other suitable interface.

Processor 2104 generally represents any type or form of processing unitcapable of processing data or interpreting, executing, and/or directingexecution of one or more of the instructions, processes, and/oroperations described herein. Processor 2104 may direct execution ofoperations in accordance with one or more applications 2112 or othercomputer-executable instructions such as may be stored in storage device2106 or another computer-readable medium.

Storage device 2106 may include one or more data storage media, devices,or configurations and may employ any type, form, and combination of datastorage media and/or device. For example, storage device 2106 mayinclude, but is not limited to, a hard drive, network drive, flashdrive, magnetic disc, optical disc, random access memory (“RAM”),dynamic RAM (“DRAM”), other non-volatile and/or volatile data storageunits, or a combination or sub-combination thereof. Electronic data,including data described herein, may be temporarily and/or permanentlystored in storage device 2106. For example, data representative of oneor more executable applications 2112 configured to direct processor 2104to perform any of the operations described herein may be stored withinstorage device 2106. In some examples, data may be arranged in one ormore databases residing within storage device 2106.

I/O module 2108 may be configured to receive user input and provide useroutput and may include any hardware, firmware, software, or combinationthereof supportive of input and output capabilities. For example, I/Omodule 2108 may include hardware and/or software for capturing userinput, including, but not limited to, a keyboard or keypad, a touchscreen component (e.g., touch screen display), a receiver (e.g., an RFor infrared receiver), and/or one or more input buttons.

I/O module 2108 may include one or more devices for presenting output toa user, including, but not limited to, a graphics engine, a display(e.g., a display screen, one or more output drivers (e.g., displaydrivers), one or more audio speakers, and one or more audio drivers. Incertain embodiments, I/O module 2108 is configured to provide graphicaldata to a display for presentation to a user. The graphical data may berepresentative of one or more graphical user interfaces and/or any othergraphical content as may serve a particular implementation.

In some examples, any of the systems and/or facilities described hereinmay be implemented by or within one or more components of computingdevice 2100. For example, one or more applications 2112 residing withinstorage device 2106 may be configured to direct processor 2104 toperform one or more processes or functions associated with chronic caremanagement facility 302. Likewise, storage facility 304 may beimplemented by or within storage device 2106.

In the preceding description, various exemplary embodiments have beendescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto,and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing fromthe scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. Forexample, certain features of one embodiment described herein may becombined with or substituted for features of another embodimentdescribed herein. The description and drawings are accordingly to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: maintaining, by a chroniccare solutions provider system, data representative of a chronic careplan for a patient with a chronic medical condition; providing, by thechronic care solutions provider system in accordance with the chroniccare plan, a notification by way of a patient portal for the patient touse a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated withthe patient; receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system,data representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice; determining, by the chronic care solutions provider system, thatthe biometric reading is outside an acceptable range specified in thechronic care plan; generating, by the chronic care solutions providersystem in response to the determination that the biometric reading isoutside the acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, anactionable task based on the biometric reading and in accordance withthe chronic care plan, the actionable task configured to assist thepatient in improving a health characteristic associated with the chronicmedical condition as measured by the biometric reading; and presenting,by the chronic care solutions provider system, an interactive taskinterface by way of the patient portal, the interactive task interfaceconfigured to facilitate completion by the patient of the actionabletask.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by thechronic care solutions provider system, a practitioner portal accessibleby a health care practitioner assigned to the patient; and receiving, bythe chronic care solutions provider system by way of the practitionerportal, input provided by the health care practitioner andrepresentative of the chronic care plan; wherein the maintaining of thedata representative of the chronic care plan comprises maintaining datarepresentative of the chronic care plan provided by the health carepractitioner.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of thedata representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice comprises receiving the data representative of the biometricreading from the biometric device by way of a cellular connectionbetween the biometric device and a network interconnecting the biometricdevice and the chronic care solutions provider system.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the receiving of the data representative of thebiometric reading acquired by the biometric device comprises receivingthe data representative of the biometric reading from a computing deviceassociated with the patient.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: maintaining, by the chronic care solutions provider system,data representative of a library of actionable tasks; wherein thegenerating of the actionable task comprises using the biometric readingto automatically select the actionable task from the library ofactionable tasks.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating ofthe actionable task comprises: presenting, within a practitioner portalaccessible by a health care practitioner assigned to the patient, thebiometric reading acquired by the biometric device; receiving, by way ofthe practitioner portal, input provided by the health care practitionerin response to the presentation of the biometric reading; and generatingthe actionable task based on the input provided by the health carepractitioner.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of theactionable task is further based on one or more other biometric readingsacquired by the biometric device.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: providing, by the chronic care solutions provider system inaccordance with the chronic care plan, an additional notification by wayof the patient portal for the patient to use an additional biometricdevice to acquire an additional biometric reading associated with thepatient; and receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system,data representative of the additional biometric reading acquired by theadditional biometric device; wherein the generating of the actionabletask is further based on the additional biometric reading.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the interactive task interface includes anotification of the actionable task.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinthe generating of the actionable task comprises generating a pluralityof actionable tasks based on the biometric reading and in accordancewith the chronic care plan; and the presenting of the interactive taskinterface by way of the patient portal comprises concurrentlypresenting, within the interactive task interface, a plurality ofgraphical task cards each representative of a distinct actionable taskincluded in the plurality of actionable tasks.
 11. The method of claim1, the presenting of the interactive task interface by way of thepatient portal comprises concurrently presenting, within the interactivetask interface, the interactive task, a graphical object representativeof progress made by the patient towards one or more goals associatedwith the chronic care plan, and at least one recommendation for managingthe chronic medical condition.
 12. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: detecting, by the chronic care solutions provider system, acompletion by the patient of the actionable task; and rewarding, by thechronic care solutions provider system in response to the completion bythe patient of the actionable task, the patient with one or more rewardpoints.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising presenting, bythe chronic care solutions provider system within the patient portal, anoption to redeem the one or more reward points for one or more prizes.14. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically notifying,by the chronic care solutions provider system, a health carepractitioner assigned to the patient that the biometric reading isoutside the acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the automatically notifying comprisespresenting, within a practitioner portal accessible by the health carepractitioner, a graphical object representative of an alert that thebiometric reading is outside the acceptable range specified in thechronic care plan.
 16. The method of claim 1, further comprisinginitiating, by the health management system in response to thedetermining that the biometric reading is outside the acceptable rangespecified in the chronic care plan, a consultation between the patientand a health care practitioner assigned to the patient.
 17. The methodof claim 16, wherein the consultation comprises a virtual consultationby way of the patient portal and a practitioner portal accessible by thehealth care practitioner.
 18. The method of claim 1, embodied ascomputer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable medium.
 19. A method comprising: providing, by achronic care solutions provider system, a practitioner portal accessibleby a health care practitioner assigned to a patient with a chronicmedical condition; receiving, by the chronic care solutions providersystem by way of the practitioner portal, input provided by the healthcare practitioner and representative of a chronic care plan personalizedto the patient; providing, by the chronic care solutions provider systemin accordance with the chronic care plan, a notification by way of apatient portal accessible by the patient for the patient to use abiometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated with thepatient; receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system, datarepresentative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice; presenting, by the chronic care solutions provider system withinthe practitioner portal, the biometric reading acquired by the biometricdevice; receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system by wayof the practitioner portal, input provided by the health carepractitioner and representative of an actionable task based on thebiometric reading, the actionable task configured to assist the patientin improving a health characteristic associated with the chronic medicalcondition as measured by the biometric reading; and presenting, by thechronic care solutions provider system, a notification of the actionabletask to the patient by way of the patient portal.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least onenon-transitory computer-readable medium.
 21. A system comprising: astorage facility configured to maintain data representative of a chroniccare plan for a patient with a chronic medical condition; and a chroniccare management facility communicatively coupled to the storage facilityand configured to provide, in accordance with the chronic care plan, anotification by way of a patient portal for the patient to use abiometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated with thepatient, receive data representative of the biometric reading acquiredby the biometric device, determine that the biometric reading is outsidean acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, generate, inresponse to the determination that the biometric reading is outside theacceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, an actionable taskbased on the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic careplan, the actionable task configured to assist the patient in improvinga health characteristic associated with the chronic medical condition asmeasured by the biometric reading, and present an interactive taskinterface by way of the patient portal, the interactive task interfaceconfigured to facilitate completion by the patient of the actionabletask.